Wood River Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Distribution and Possession of Child Pornography

U.S. Attorney’s Office
November 21, 2013

Southern District of Illinois(618) 628-3700

Charlie M. Jarrett, 71, of Wood River, Illinois, was sentenced on November 20, 2013, in the United States District Court to 10 years in prison for distribution and possession of child pornography, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Stephen R. Wigginton announced today. Jarrett was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the victims of his offenses, a $200 special assessment, and a fine in the amount of $17,500. Following his prison sentence, Jarrett will be on federal supervised release for life and will also be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life.

Court documents establish that in February 2012, during an undercover Internet investigation, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation determined that Jarrett was distributing child pornography using a peer-to-peer file sharing network. Agents obtained and executed a search warrant for Jarrett’s residence during which they seized Jarrett’s computer, 25 CDs and DVDs, and a binder that contained over 200 images of child pornography. Jarrett was interviewed and admitted that he had been downloading child pornography from the Internet for approximately eight years and that he had distributed the images and videos containing child pornography to other individuals. During a forensic examination of Jarrett’s computer, agents recovered 2638 image files and 60 videos containing child pornography.

In pronouncing the sentence, the United States District Judge took note of the shocking content of the images distributed by Jarrett. “The court just simply cannot get past the images that have been passed around between men,” he remarked. “This is a serious crime. And I hope that in this case that the word gets out...because we want them to pause. We want them to stop. And maybe just think that what I’m doing here even though it is at some level gratifying to me can cause me a lot of pain.” Were it not for Jarrett’s advanced age, the judge noted that Jarrett would have been sentenced to more prison time.

“People need to know that there are men out there, like Mr. Jarrett and many others whom we have prosecuted, who join online worldwide secret networks to view, distribute, and exchange some of the most shocking and sickening videos and photographs of children, toddlers, and infants being raped. In this case, our investigation found images and videos of adult males sexually penetrating infants and toddlers, as well as toddlers forced to perform sexual acts on adults. Some of the images and videos included bondage and sadistic attacks on children,” said United States Attorney Wigginton. “The general public needs to know that more often than not the phrase ‘child pornography’ really means ‘child rape caught on tape.’ There are groups of adults who are interested in infant pornography, there are other groups of adults interested in toddler pornography, and there are many who are interested in prepubescent pornography. Terms like shocking, appalling, and sickening simply do not accurately describe what we see in these horrific cases.”

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Metro East Cyber Crimes and Analysis Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ali Summers.